The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

Abstract

The EMC My Documentum family includes EMC My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook, EMC My
Documentum for Desktop, EMC My Documentum for Offline, EMC My Documentum for Microsoft
SharePoint, and several other products. These products provide enterprise content management capabilities to
knowledge workers through the popular business applications they use every day such as Microsoft Outlook,
Microsoft Office, Windows Explorer, and Macintosh Finderwhether they are online or offline. This white
paper focuses on EMC My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook, Desktop, and Offline.
September 2009

Copyright 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Part Number h4746
The EMC My Documentum Product Family
A Detailed Review

Table of Contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................ 4
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 4
Audience ...................................................................................................................................... 5

EMC My Documentum family overview ............................................................ 5

My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook............................................................ 5
Feature enhancements ................................................................................................................ 6
Personal productivity ................................................................................................................ 6
Archiving and compliance ........................................................................................................ 7
Knowledge management.......................................................................................................... 7
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 8

My Documentum for Desktop ............................................................................ 9

Support for common desktop protocols ....................................................................................... 9
Feature enhancements .............................................................................................................. 10
Client-side, work-in-progress cache....................................................................................... 10
Support for distributed content ............................................................................................... 10
Automatic client software updating ........................................................................................ 10
Integration with other collaboration applications .................................................................... 10
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 10

My Documentum for Offline ............................................................................. 11

Synchronizing offline content ..................................................................................................... 11
Collision resolution..................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 12

Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 13

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

Executive summary
Despite the billions of dollars organizations spend on enterprise content management (ECM) systems,
many ECM initiatives fail. Why? Because most ECM solutions today are not well integrated into popular
business applications that knowledge workers use every day.
Knowledge workers spend the majority of their time working with information in a variety of forms; they
resist anything that makes that process more complex or time consuminglike learning yet another
application and its interface. What knowledge workers really want to be able to do is access, secure, store,
and manage information from within the familiar interfaces of common business applications such as
Microsoft Outlook.
The EMC My Documentum family of products addresses this very problem. These products provide
transparent, frictionless ECM capabilities to knowledge workers through the popular business
applications they use every day such as Microsoft Outlook, Windows Explorer, and SharePointwhether
they are online or offline. Now knowledge workers can decrease time to information and thereby time to
market, as they find, share, access, and secure information through their everyday applications, with little to
no training. The IT organization also improves adherence to corporate policies on retention and
governance by providing ECM capabilities from within everyday applications.

Introduction
Organizations spend billions of dollars to purchase, tailor, deploy, and maintain ECM systems. They do this
to provide their knowledge workers (KWs) with centralized access to information, to help them collaborate
easily across geographic and functional boundaries, and to address the IT and legal requirements for
information security, governance, and regulatory compliance.
But despite this investment, many ECM initiatives fail. The primary reason, as the market research firm
Forrester Research pointed out in a study, is that for many business people, the hassle of using [an] ECM
system exceeds the systems value. 1 And this is despite the fact that ECM delivers many compelling
benefits, such as:

Elimination of information silos

Easier repurposing of content

Enforceable retention policies and brand standards

Streamlined business processes

Greater security for sensitive content

Increased efficiency

So why is using ECM functionality such a hassle? Because it is rarely well integrated into the applications
knowledge workers use every day.
Knowledge workers engage in a great variety of activities. A stock broker is a knowledge worker. So is a
product manager, an architect, an industrial designer, and a marketing manager. They want easy, simple
access to information that increases their productivity and helps them get tasks accomplished faster. They
do not want to waste time navigating multiple applications or spend time learning a new application.
Knowledge workers want to access information anytime, anywhereonline and offlineand to execute
their business tasks from within the familiar interfaces of common business applications such as Microsoft
Outlook. They want to be more productive more quickly.

Craig Le Claire and Ken Poore. "Enterprise Content Managements Next Step Forward," For Information
& Knowledge Management Professionals (2008): 2. (accessed June 6, 2008).

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

This paper focuses on three My Documentum products:

My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook

My Documentum for Desktop

My Documentum for Offline

It examines how the EMC My Documentum family of products, and in particular the Microsoft Office
integrations, provides users with transparent, seamless access to basic content services capabilities from
within familiar interfaces and increases user adherence to corporate governance and compliance requests.

Audience
This white paper is intended for organizations that are looking to provide their users with intuitive solutions
to access, share, find, secure, and manage information. It is also intended for Documentum customers who
are looking for integrations between Documentum and Microsoft Office.

EMC My Documentum family overview

The My Documentum brand and the products within the family focus on leveraging basic content services
capabilities from within everyday business applications. The family includes several products, starting with
those that provide an integration with Microsoft Office: EMC My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook
(formerly Documentum Client for Outlook or DCO), EMC My Documentum for Desktop (formerly File
Share Services or FSS), and EMC My Documentum for Offline. The family also includes an integration
with Microsoft SharePoint, Quark, and Adobe In-Design (My Documentum for Creative Professionals),
SAP (My Documentum for SAP), and others.
The My Documentum products deliver best-in-class content management functionality via a seamless
integration with popular business applications. The My Documentum products provide a unique blend of
the familiarity of Microsoft Office interfaces with the power of EMC Documentums enterprise content
management services.
From simple features such as information sharing and versioning to an extensive range of content services
that include retention and records management, and role and user-based security, the My Documentum
products can make an immediate impact on knowledge worker productivity. Users dont need to leave their
everyday personal productivity client to leverage the benefits of ECM features for increased efficiency and
widespread adoption and use.
Lets take a more detailed look at each application in the My Documentum product family.

My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook

Many knowledge workers manage their work life through the familiar Microsoft Outlook interface. They
exchange business-critical information through e-mail, particularly the Microsoft Outlook interface.
Outlook serves as a productivity tool, messaging platform, and business transaction channel. But e-mail is
not a reliable technology for preserving corporate information. Business critical information can be, and
often is, easily lost in e-mail threads or exposed to those for whom it was not intended. E-mail is the bane
of e-discovery efforts, adding millions to the cost of legal matters. And even if e-mails are preserved, they
are often stored in an unmanaged data store, without the benefit of any content management services such
as retention, records management, information discovery capabilities, version control, or security, and
outside of any corporate governance system or practice.
With My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook, knowledge workers can continue to work through the
familiar Microsoft Outlook interface and IT can secure, manage, and archive content for governance,
compliance, and e-discovery purposes. My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook embraces the rich user
experience of Outlook that most knowledge workers already know and love, and extends Outlooks
ubiquitous desktop footprint with ECM capabilities to address a pervasive set of content management
challenges.
The EMC My Documentum Product Family
A Detailed Review

Figure 1. The familiar Microsoft Outlook interface delivers powerful content management
features

Feature enhancements
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook now includes native integration with the Microsoft Outlook
interface and provides offline access and support. My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook supports
Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 SP1. The latest release enables knowledge workers to employ Outlooks
native menus and toolbars to easily find, file, store, and manage e-mails and documents in the repository.
The following sections describe improvements to My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook in three areas.

Personal productivity
In contrast to earlier versions, the latest release of My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook completely
adopts the familiar Outlook interface, which substantially reduces the knowledge worker learning curve.
The addition of a Documentum toolbar, a series of buttons added to the Outlook menu bar, provides
convenient access to top-level My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook functionality, such as checking
documents in and out, canceling checkout, creating new objects, and viewing checked-out and recent
documents. Users can simply drag and drop e-mails and attachments into repository folders and then apply
content management functionality such as properties, permissions, versions, and locations directly from the
Outlook interface. My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook has also added offline support, which allows
users to work with content when disconnected from the repository.
For knowledge workers, searching for information can be a tremendous impediment to productivity. In fact,
without efficient search tools enterprise knowledge workers spend approximately 25 percent of their time

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

searching for information and another 25 percent evaluating it. 2 Through the Outlook interface, My
Documentum for Microsoft Outlook enables search in two modesonline and offlinestreamlining and
accelerating the search process. In online mode, users can use metadata properties and content to search
Documentum repository profiles for specific documents and messages. The search results will include only
documents located in the folders for which the user has adequate permissions. In offline mode, My
Documentum for Microsoft Outlook searches local storage for items that have been set as offline
enabled.
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook also gives users the option of simple or advanced searching. With
a simple search, users can search by word or phrase for any item in the repository. When running a simple
search in online mode, the repository and local storage are searched. A simple search could encompass a
single folder, single repository, or all the repositories to which the user has access. If a search target is
found in multiple profiles or linked to multiple locations, all instances of the item are displayed in the
search results, which can contain up to 500 items. The advanced option gives users more search criteria
including object type, format, text fields only, content only, date, size, value, and conditions. Advanced
searches can also employ wildcards.

Archiving and compliance

My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook introduces improvements such as leveraging the Outlook rules
engine to automatically import content and a one-step Send-and-Save operation that can ease the burden of
regulatory or corporate policy compliance. Users can utilize rules to help automatically file e-mails and
attachments. Users can also insert content into outgoing mail as an attachment or a link and save e-mails
and attachments to the repository automatically when sending via the Send and Save command. E-mails
and attachments can be retained as records by storing them in a folder governed by Retention Policy
Services.

Knowledge management
The extensive content management capabilities delivered via My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook that
enable users to work with e-mails and documents from the comfort of the Outlook interface are well
known. Users can open, edit, and save a document from Outlook, and My Documentum for Microsoft
Outlook provides several views that display document properties, permissions, and versions. Users can also
create new documents in either online or offline mode using Documentum templates. Behind the scenes,
the latest release of My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook delivers performance improvements in the
following four areas.
Managing metadata
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook provides comprehensive metadata management functionality such
as folder-attribute inheritance and the ability to set metadata during multi-select import operations.
Documentum repository objects (e-mails, e-mail attachments, or documents) can be classified with
metadata fields (properties) such as sender, recipient, date sent and received, size, file type, format, and
others that are tailored to an organizations requirements. Properties are stored with objects in the
repository.
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook can be configured to inherit attributes from the target folder or to
prompt for metadata via an Outlook-style import dialog. When synchronization occurs between local
storage and repositories, changes to properties are synchronized along with content objects. IT and the
corporate compliance team can set the system so that any new content or information gets assigned a set of
values based simply on the folder into which the user places the item. The user is complying with
corporate policies with no overhead on ITs part.
Working online and offline
Users can work in My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook in two modes: online, connected to the
Documentum repository; and offline, disconnected from the repository. Online mode provides immediate
2

Feldman, Susan. "The Hidden Costs of Information Work." IDC Update (2006): 2-3.

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

access to content, permissions, locations, and advanced search. In online mode, the most recent (current)
document version is displayed, and users have access to previous versions. When documents are modified
in online mode, changes are automatically synchronized with the repository enabling others to see them.
Offline mode enables users to work with e-mail messages and documents when a connection to the
repository is unavailable. Changes are synchronized the next time a user connects to the repository. My
Documentum for Microsoft Outlook switches to offline mode automatically when a connection to the
repository is unavailable and back to online mode when a connection resumes.
Synchronizing content
Each time a user launches Microsoft Outlook, content synchronization starts automatically, ensuring that
repository settings such as properties, profiles, and formats are up to date. The status of the synchronization
process is displayed in a dialog box. The users information store is updated with any changes that occurred
while they were disconnected. In addition, any corporate changes to the profile are driven down to the user
behind the scenes.
Users have a great deal of control over synchronization. They can schedule auto synchronization, or turn it
off and synchronize a repository or folder manually as needed. They can also set synchronization
preferences, such as synchronize every hour or at a certain time. Synchronization also occurs automatically
when a user closes a document that has been open for editing. When a user works on a document offline,
the synchronization of all changes is scheduled and starts as soon that user goes online. Synchronization
uploads changes to the repository, creates a new version if required, and unlocks the document in the
repository. Similarly, deleting an item triggers synchronization. Users and administrators can control the
overhead imposed on any given client system.
During the synchronization process, synchronizations of different types can overlap. When that occurs,
synchronization operations are put in queue and users can view and prioritize them via a dialog box.
Resolving synchronization collisions
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook can resolve conflicts during the synchronization process. For
example, a conflict (called a collision) may occur if a document is simultaneously changed in a users local
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook and in the repository. This might occur when someone changes a
document online while a colleague works on the same document offline. Or it would occur if a document
created in local storage cannot be uploaded to the repository because the author lacks sufficient
permissions.
When a collision occurs, the application icon on the My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook status bar
blinks, prompting the user to select an action that resolves the discrepancy. My Documentum for Microsoft
Outlook presents several resolution options based on the cause of the collision such as upload the local
version to the repository, select to discard local changes, preserve the server version, and so on.

Conclusion
My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook provides a unique blend of the familiarity of Microsoft Outlook
with the power of EMC Documentums enterprise content management services. Users dont need to leave
their everyday e-mail/personal productivity client to leverage the benefits of ECM features for increased
efficiency and widespread adoption and use. Several of our customers in the controlled release program
have indicated two major benefits of deploying My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook an intuitive,
transparent ECM solution and savings in training costs. In the words of one of our customers, who has
deployed My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook to more than 100 users and is planning a much larger
deployment, There was no need to explain to users how to store and manage information. The difference
between DCO 5.3 and My Documentum for Microsoft Outlook is night and day. I would recommend
customers to start the upgrade process now."

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

My Documentum for Desktop

My Documentum for Desktop, formerly called Documentum File Share Services, provides transparent,
friction-less access to content management functionality from within common desktop applications. Users
can secure, save, access, and share information all from within Microsoft Office applications. My
Documentum for Desktop consists of a server and a thick client that provide knowledge workers with
access to the Documentum repository from the common desktop applications they use to create and edit
content. It enables users to access the basic content services functionality of Documentum directly from
common Microsoft Office business applications, while enabling the organization to secure, manage, and
archive information for governance and compliance purposes.

Figure 2. My Documentum for Desktop transparent access to Documentum from within

Microsoft Office business applications

Support for common desktop protocols

From either a Windows or Macintosh environment, My Documentum for Desktop delivers basic access to
the Documentum repository. This access enables content authors to manage, reuse, and repurpose content
while maintaining source content integrity. My Documentum for Desktop is certified for the Microsoft
Office products Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. From within these applications, the client delivers core
content services such as import, open, browse, check in/check out, delete, and versioning. Users can also:

Link documents from within certified applications, such as linking a Microsoft Excel table to a
PowerPoint presentation or creating inter-document links for PDF files

Enjoy improved read/write performance from remote locations through integration with Documentum
Branch Office Caching Services (BOCS)

Generate consistent thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer and Macintosh Finder

Use a built-in authoring cache to avoid transferring content to the repository after each save

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

Leverage intelligent information handling capabilities such as virtual documents, file analysis, and
image extraction

Feature enhancements
The most recent release of My Documentum for Desktop release 6.5 SP2 has been significantly rearchitected to improve performance and scalability. Originally, My Documentum for Desktop was built for
the creative user, but release 6.5 SP2 meets the heavy demand by knowledge workers for access to basic
Documentum content services functionality through Microsoft Office applications. The following sections
summarize the most significant upgrades in the 6.5 release.

Client-side, work-in-progress cache

This feature enables My Documentum for Desktop to control both ends of the communication pathway
more reliably. The footprint on the end-users machine now includes a cache tuned for remote authoring.
The cache supports local editing of large files without interrupting network traffic or risking data loss.
Content is still controlled by the repository and content linked via My Documentum for Desktop remains
unaffected.
The authoring cache allows for a two-phase commit. Users can save local backups of content from their
authoring applications. My Documentum for Desktop can also periodically scan for edited/changed files
that have not been yet been uploaded to the repository. It then either prompts the user for a commit (to the
repository) decision or uploads the content automatically according to a schedule set in preferences

Support for distributed content

My Documentum for Desktop is now location-aware and can use Documentum BOCS to access content
from the nearest cache. BOCS resolves branch office performance issues caused by network latency. It
enables users to quickly read and write to local content caches that are synchronized with the primary
content repository.

Automatic client software updating

The latest release of the My Documentum for Desktop client detects the need to upgrade based upon server
updates. Without manual intervention, the upgrade process forces all My Documentum for Desktop clients
to update to the latest client release that is available on internal servers. This is very beneficial for IT to
control client distributions to the desktop.

Integration with other collaboration applications

My Documentum for Desktop is integrated with CenterStage. CenterStage is a new set of innovative
clients that powers business-to-business collaboration with advanced search and discovery and mobile
access. CenterStage also provides comprehensive security, compliance, and retention controls across this
extended environment.
My Documentum for Desktop is integrated with CenterStage where CenterStage spaces are exposed within
My Documentum for Desktop and CenterStage retention policies can also be applied to folders in the
repository.

Conclusion
My Documentum for Desktop provides transparent content management access to content from within
Microsoft Office applications. My Documentum for Desktop is essentially an extension to the desktop that
exposes a lightweight set of content management capabilities; it allows content to be opened and saved
directly to the repository through a certified set of applications. In keeping with the My Documentum
brand, with My Documentum for Desktop, knowledge workers can continue to work within familiar
interfaces while leveraging the basic content services capabilities of Documentum to save, secure, find, and
access information.
The EMC My Documentum Product Family
A Detailed Review

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My Documentum for Offline

My Documentum for Offline is a new, lightweight client that gives users transparent access to content
managed by the repository while disconnected from the repository. Users choose the repository folders and
content they wish to make available on local storage so that content is available to their machines when
working offline. They work with documents locally in a dedicated folder that mirrors the one in the
repository. Content may be edited, added, deleted, and subscribed while offline and will automatically
synchronize to the repository when connected.
Fully integrated with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office applications, My Documentum for Offline
gives users seamless repository access. It is an ideal, easy-to-use client for knowledge workers on the go
who often work disconnected from their network and simply need the ability to work with content and
metadata. My Documentum for Offline lets users synchronize changes with the repository whenever they
reconnect to their network, upload changes to the repository and download repository changes to local
machines. Synchronization can be set to occur automatically; it can be triggered at a prescribed time or by
an event; or it can be performed manually whenever necessary. With My Documentum for Offline, users
can also:

Check in and check out while connected to the repository

Leverage offline metadata support

Subscribe to content

View detailed synchronization status, including history

Send content as a link through e-mail

Resolve synchronization conflicts

Synchronizing offline content

Keeping offline content and metadata in synch with the repository while maintaining version control are
important concerns for mobile workers. The design of My Documentum for Offline incorporates features to
handle these processes safely.
With My Documentum for Offline, users may take content with them, make changes without checking the
content out, and synch the content to the repository when they reconnect. The same is true for metadata.
My Documentum for Offline saves any attribute changes in a local database. These changes are synched to
the repository with the item when the user connects to the repository. In either case, version control is
maintained.
Synchronization options determine in which direction synchronization occurs. Synchronization can be set
to:
Download modified versions of documents from the repository to an offline folder

Upload modified documents from an offline folder to the repository

Proceed in both directions simultaneously

Users can set synchronization options for individual files and folders or for multiple files and folders in a
folder tree. Synchronization sessions are saved in the synchronization history, which enables users to keep
track of uploaded and downloaded documents should issues occur during synchronization.

The EMC My Documentum Product Family

A Detailed Review

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Figure 3. Full range of synchronization options with My Documentum for Offline

Collision resolution
A collision resolution mechanism ensures that changes to the same content do not conflict. The user is
alerted when a collision occurs and is offered several options to resolve the conflict such as delete, merge,
use local version, use server version, create a new object, or exclude from synch.
For example, the merge dialog box opens when a user selects the merge option to resolve the Concurrent
Changes in the Same Object collision. The dialog box displays the properties that have different values for
local and repository documents and allows the user to select which properties will be used for the merged
document. Users can also select the content from either the local or the repository document to appear in
the merged document. Once the collision is resolved and synchronization proceeds, the merged document
appears in the repository and the offline folder.

Conclusion
My Documentum for Offline is a lightweight client that provides users immediate access to the latest
versions of the content they use most often as well as allows users to work on documents when they are not
connected to the server. By utilizing the Offline client, knowledge workers can now be productive, achieve
a base level of informal collaboration and distribution, and have access to information anytime, anywhere,
even when they are disconnected from the network.

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A Detailed Review

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Conclusion
The EMC My Documentum family of products focuses on transparent, seamless access to content
management from within familiar business applications. Knowledge workers can continue to work within
popular desktop applications while leveraging basic content management capabilities such as versioning,
lifecycles, workflows, check-in and check-out to an extensive range of content services that include
retention and records management, and role- and user-based security. The My Documentum products allow
knowledge workers to:

Use Documentum content management functionality directly from familiar desktop applications

Access content when disconnected from the repository

Find, share, and secure information through familiar desktop applications

Secure and manage intellectual property their organizations retention, archiving, and compliance
requirements

My Documentum products can make an immediate impact on knowledge worker productivity, decrease
time to information and to market, and secure and store information for governance, risk, and compliance
requirements. The focus for the My Documentum product family is easy-to-use ECM and to provide such
capabilities within interfaces knowledge workers are familiar with. With My Documentum, knowledge
workers work through familiar, intuitive interfaces with no additional training costs. The My Documentum
products extend ECM capabilities to every desktop, enabling organizations and their employees to access,
find, share, and secure business critical information while addressing the need of IT for security,
information governance, and compliance.
To learn more about the My Documentum family of products, visit our website at
http://www.emc.com/products/series/my-documentum-suite.htm.

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A Detailed Review

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